Cisco Aguilar believes this Election Day will be unlike any other in Nevada’s history.
asserted
Day → believe → history
He is bracing for immigration agents to descend on polling locations, for federal law enforcement to move to seize ballots and for the President to openly dispute the state’s election results.
asserted
President → brace → results
“If this administration chooses to challenge the elections, yes, we are preparing for it,” Aguilar, Nevada’s secretary of state and top election official, tells TIME.
asserted
Aguilar → choose → TIME
“We know it's a very high probability,”
Aguilar has spent much of the year planning around what the federal government might do in his state on Nov. 3.
uncertain
government → know → Nov.
While some of its House races are among those that could decide whether Republicans hold on to the chamber, it doesn’t have a high profile Senate race like Michigan or Texas.
uncertain
it → decide → Michigan
Yet Nevada is a perennial swing state that draws intense interest from both parties in presidential election years.
asserted
that → draw → years
Trump won the state in 2024 by 3 percentage points.
asserted
Trump → win → points
Nevada, Aguilar says, is the only state in the country to have received seven voter-related subpoenas from the Department of Justice this year.
asserted
Aguilar → say → Justice
He has also been informed he is personally being investigated by the DOJ.
asserted
he → inform → DOJ
“I take it as a badge of honor,” Aguilar says.
asserted
Aguilar → take → honor
“We are following the law every single day.
asserted
We → follow → law
We are proving it in the courts.
asserted
We → prove → courts
I'm not sure what you're going to find, but continue to do your intimidation attempts.”
asserted
you → go → attempts
In anticipation of federal officials attempting to seize ballots, Aguilar’s office has prepared what he calls a "Mad Libs" legal filing that is fully researched and drafted.
asserted
that → attempt → what
All that’s missing are the plaintiff, the defendant and the jurisdiction.
asserted
that → miss → ?
The point, he says, is for his office to be able to file lawsuits “within seconds” if a federal agent shows up at a Nevada polling location.
asserted
agent → say → location
In an interview with TIME last month, Trump declined to rule out declaring a national emergency or invoking the Insurrection Act around the midterms, or sending ICE agents to polling stations.
asserted
Trump → decline → stations
"I don't rule anything out or in.
asserted
I → rule → anything
We'll see," he said.
asserted
he → see → ?
Aguilar, an attorney and an entrepreneur working in sports management, had never served in public office before being elected Nevada’s Secretary of State in 2022.
asserted
Aguilar → work → 2022
That year, he defeated a former Republican lawmaker who claimed that Nevada's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election were stolen from Trump, despite formal investigations finding no evidence to support that.
asserted
investigations → defeat → that
He is on the ballot again this year, running for a second four-year term while also gearing up to defend the integrity of the election results in every Nevada county.
asserted
He → run → county
“We're going to take some punches, but we can't fall,” Aguilar says.
asserted
Aguilar → go → punches
“We have to continue to protect Nevada.
asserted
We → have → Nevada
We have to punch back.”
asserted
We → have → ?
A voter fraud investigation collapses
asserted
investigation → collapse → ?
During his address to the nation in July, President Trump claimed to have identified about 278,000 non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal elections, 16,000 from Nevada alone.
asserted
who → claim → Nevada
That number has shrunk dramatically every time the state has pushed back on it.
asserted
state → shrink → it
From the start of the investigation, Aguilar says his office has struggled to get clear answers.
asserted
office → say → answers
The White House has said that the President’s allegations were based on the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database, which was originally designed to check whether or not someone was entitled to government benefits.
asserted
someone → say → benefits
Nevada is among the states that has refused to upload sensitive voter information to SAVE over concerns over its accuracy and data privacy.
asserted
that → refuse → accuracy
(Election officials in Texas and Missouri discovered they had falsely marked dozens of U.S. citizens as noncitizens using SAVE.)
asserted
they → discover → SAVE
Over the summer, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened that state and local election officials who refuse to use the department’s database to identify noncitizens on their voter rolls could potentially face “prison time.”
uncertain
who → threaten → time
A few weeks later, members of Aguilar’s office found themselves on a Zoom call with DHS officials.
asserted
members → find → officials
During the call, which was obtained by The Las Vegas Review-Journal through a public record request, one DHS official struggled to substantiate their own numbers, saying that the department has not conducted “a full manual review” of the 16,000 Nevada voters it identified as non-citizens.
asserted
it → obtain → citizens
Upon further review, department officials said they believed the list of noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls was down to 185, but didn’t have that list of names available.
asserted
list → say → names
Weeks after that initial meeting, Nevada received what Aguilar described as an “incomplete” dataset from DHS of the 185 suspect voters.
asserted
Aguilar → receive → voters
Aguilar says every single one was a U.S. citizen.
asserted
one → say → ?
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson disputed the characterization, saying that the 185 voters “were simply a subset of individuals that had gone through a rigorous manual review process at that time of the call.”
“DHS is assisting Nevada by narrowing their list of nearly 2.3 million registered voters to just 15,903 who match an alien in DHS records.
asserted
who → dispute → records
DHS is providing a service to the citizens of Nevada,” the spokesperson said.
asserted
spokesperson → provide → Nevada
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
